Bloody Backgrounds and Bloody Perception
by jc-1225
Summary: Nina grows tired of it all and decides to make amends to her sister and her son. RR
1. Chapter 1

Bloody Backgrounds and Bloody Perception

Summery: Nina grows tired of it all and decides to make amends to her sister and her son.

Chapter 1

The snow stained red underneath my feet as I walked. It hurt to come back. There was a time when I cared for my sister. But that was a long time ago. I've turned a cold heart to everyone now, save for my father.

I've given up now. My days are numbered it seems. Funny how now it's the assassin that's dying. I am the victim. Oh, how the tables have turned. I never would have given up this easily before. But now, circumstances are different.

By now, I grew numb to the cold and to the pain. But I was too weak. I collapsed into the snow.

There had been a fierce battle between Anna and I. My thin clothing was nearly shredded by the time we were through. My shoes had been blown apart. A bullet had pierced through my foot as well. But in retribution I had shot a bullet into her shoulder. I felt it was only fair. But she got angry and stabbed me in the stomach. I twisted her arms behind her back and shoved her to the ground after breaking an arm and stabbing her in the leg. I fled. That was earlier this morning.

Now, hours later, I lay bleeding in the snow. In the place where I had lost him. After he left was the time when I started to push Anna away. And now, the day he had died all those years ago, and here, the very same place that had had lay lifeless and bleeding, I, too, would die.

It was all my fault. He told me to take the gun. But I didn't do it; I didn't grant him is dying request. I was a scared little girl. But I can't help but to wonder, id I had taken the gun like he asked, would my father till be alive?

After he died, I turned a deaf ear to their screams. I became an assassin as he was. I no longer cry like the sad little girl. I am no longer that sad little girl. I miss the way things used to be before he left though. Things were different then. I numb myself to feelings now. I never want to feel anything.

I close my eyes and I see my father, Richard Williams. Sometimes I will see him the way that I last saw him, in the crematoria. Other times I will see him the way he was before he departed or even as he lay dying. And I can't help but thinking, it was all my fault.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

My eyes fluttered open. My first thought was that I was dead. I sat up and immediately clutched a hand to my stomach. No, I'm alive.

I heard a voice sound to my left. "Oh, good, you're awake. I wasn't sure you'd make it." I turned to see an older woman, her hair slightly graying. She spoke with a British accent.

"Steve," I muttered. Luckily though, she didn't hear me. "How long have I been out?" I asked, my voice louder than before.

"Two days, dear." She turned and began messing with a few things at the sink. "The doctor pulled the bullet out of your right foot by the way. How do you feel, dear?"

I snorted. "Like shit."

"That's better than what I usually get after someone goes through surgery." She laughed. "Well you get some rest, dear." She smiled and left the room.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

When they released me, I went to my apartment and picked up the phone, calling the operator. When I'd gotten the number I needed, I dialed it into the phone. There was an ongoing ring from the other end of the receiver until finally, after numerous rings, an answering machine picked up. The voice on the machine was British. I had the right number. After the beep sounded, I spoke into the receiver. "Steve, its Nina. I know that I haven't been very kind to you. In fact, I tried to kill you a few times. But I have a proposition for you. I'll be over tomorrow." I hung up the phone and sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

Bloody Backgrounds and Bloody Perception

Chapter 2

A cab picked me up from the airport and took me to my hotel. "So, where'd you fly in from?" the driver asked on the way over.

"Ireland," I said.

"Ireland? Then what business do you have in England?" he asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror.

"My son lives here." My son. That was the first time I'd ever acknowledged that. My tear ducts aroused but I didn't cry. Father wouldn't like that. _Only the weak cry_, I remember hearing him say.

After I put my bag inside my hotel room, the cab took me to Steve's.

When he opened the door, he looked a bit worried. "Oh, so you have come."

"I take it that you got my message." He let me past him and we sat down on the couch in the living room of his small apartment.

"Now," he said. "About your proposition…"

"Before I tell you, I would like to tell you why I have come to this proposal." I paused. "Many years ago, in Ireland, when I was about seven years old, my father took Anna and I to the snow. I don't remember why. We were surrounded by men. They wanted something from my father. They took Anna away. But I was allowed to stay. The men grew impatient with my father. One of them pointed a gun in our direction. My father tried to take it and shoot the man holding it. He shot a few others too. One man knocked him down and sat on his chest. The gun lay at my feet." I paused and took a drink of the water Steve had given me. "' Nina, take it, take it,' his voice was weak. But I was too scared. Someone took the gun and shot both my father and the man on him and then fell dead himself. I fell to my knees. Anna walked over to me and held both of my trembling hands." I'd never spoke any of this aloud. It hurt. "Anna and I blamed each other for our father's death. But I know whose fault it was." I took another sip from the glass and looked my son in the eye. "I know, you probably don't understand why I told you this. But Anna and I, we were close once before I pushed her away. I blamed her for something that was not her fault. Just like I blamed you for what they did to me. I came here, to say that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blamed you; I shouldn't have tried to kill you. Even though you were their experiment, you are still _my_ son." I tried to smile and nearly cried.

Steve looked at me, unsure of what to do or say. After a few minutes of silence, he hugged me. "Yes, Mum, I forgive you. All I ever wanted was to get to know you. Maybe now, I'll have my chance."

"Come with me then, back to Ireland."


	3. Chapter 3

Bloody Backgrounds and Bloody Perception

Chapter 3

I asked him to move back with me to Ireland. Steve was at first hesitant but soon he agreed. The thought of a twenty-one year old man living with his mother may be unacceptable to some others, but for one who has never before known her or who she was, Steve was grateful. I was all he'd ever wanted but I turned my back to him and a few times a knife or a gun. I turned my back on my son, my sister, and even myself.

I had been numbing the pain all the years of my life. The Novocain is only now wearing off at twenty four. My whole life was wasted pleasing someone who has been long since dead and not around to see my works. Realization first came as I lay on my deathbed, lethargic, awaiting the return of my spirit.

Now, when I look into my cold blue eyes, I see a different set. A set by the name of Steve Fox. My eyes, once cold, now have a softness that I never noticed. I feel a burden released that I never knew weighed on my shoulders. As long as I have known that Steve is my son, I have tried to kill him.

Steve Fox, disgraced by his mother, his aunt none the better, was an experiment in cryogenics. _I_ was an experiment. I was put into cryosleep and my body didn't age for fifteen years. But I never once regretted leaving my child, since I found out, until now. Now, he stands before me a grown man. A professional boxer. I turned my back on the only thing that should have mattered.

He asked me about what I would do, now that I have decided to quit my _job._ I think he knew that I, myself, wasn't sure yet as to what I would do in the way of work. But on a more personal note, I'd planned to make up with my sister.

It's sad how we have fallen apart and curse each other even though we both know who is to blame. We've lied to ourselves and each other. "Lies take victims, separate them at the seams, cause them to fall apart, then move along to better things." We have spent most of our lives, or about seventeen years of it, fighting a battle neither can win. She knows that she is evenly matched but won't admit it.

"Mother?" Steve had come back into the room. "Why is it so important to you that I go back with you to Ireland?"

"I want to make up for all the hurt that I've caused. And if my sister Anna forgives me as well, I think you should know her too." He smiled at me. I smiled back. Again my son embraced me.

"I'd like that, Mother." I lifted my hand and stroked his blonde hair, thinking to myself, _what a handsome boy I have._

"Steve?" He looked up at me. "Have you ever thought of marrying?"

"I have thought of someone, yes, but marrying her, no. I have recently come back from America, where I was hiding from the mafia. I had made my way to Arizona, while in the States, and there is where I met her. Julia Chang." A smile crossed his lips as he spoke her name but soon faded as he continued. "But she didn't seem interested. And when I felt it was safe, I came back here to England."

"So you have not seen her since then?"

He nodded. "It's true. Though I hear that she may be in the next King of Iron Fist Tournament."

"She was in the last one?"

"Yes, I believe she was. But I never really knew her until I met with her in Arizona." He waited a moment in thought before saying, "It was said also that hr mother was once in the tournament?"

"Possibly." I could no longer remember my past other than my father and my son.

"In all my time with hr she had said nothing of her mother."

"I know nothing of her," I said to him. "But there is a way to find out. But we shall do that later. Now, I think we should pack then after we can rest."

"When will we be leaving?"

"We have four days before a plane leaves to take us to Ireland." I smiled and he nodded. His golden hair was brushed back to reveal a set of eyes that were blue and full of hope for his mother's love.


End file.
